A key warmup match for Unai Emery’s Paris Saint-Germain ahead of their Coupe de France semifinal tilt with Leonardo Jardim’s AS Monaco takes place on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Parc des Princes against Jean-Louis Gasset’s Montpellier HSC. Paris will look to avenge one of its heaviest defeats of the season, a toothless 3-0 shutout loss away to Montpellier on the road.

After nearly losing 3-2 to FC Metz, PSG prevailed away to Philippe Hinschberger’s side by that exact scoreline on Tuesday. If Paris are to prepare well for what is essentially the final before the final in the 2016-17 Coupe de France, a dominating, a more convincing performance at Le Parc will be needed to ensure that the pressure remains on the league leaders heading into the final weekend in April.

“We controlled 80% of the game,” said Emery of their effort against Metz. “In the end, the result is good for us. Our aim was to use the confidence that we have to hold on to the result and create more of a difference. But our opponents play too and can score at any moment. The Metz fans pushed after the first goal, which led to the second. At that moment, we needed to play with heart in the final minutes to get the three points. The team played the last four minutes with the attitude that we wanted to win. What we have to retain is that we mustn’t let our opponents back into the match.”

“It’s true we could have had a very different result,” said the hero of the match away to Metz, PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi. “In the first half, we deserved better. In the second, we didn’t do what we should have done and were punished. I’m happy to have scored, it keeps us moving on. We don’t give up on anything, that’s the most important thing. But we mustn’t give ourselves a fright like that.”

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Jo-Ryan Salazar is a writer for The Stoppage Time, a soccer blog powered by Azteca Soccer. A supporter of the Los Angeles Galaxy since 1996 and a committed supporter since 2002, Jo-Ryan also follows Chelsea FC, Melbourne Victory, FC Tokyo and Paris Saint-Germain. Apart from soccer, Jo-Ryan is an administrative assistant for a local nonprofit in Long Beach, California and also does photography, photo-editing and fictional writing.